Cheapest Ways to Take Card Payments in 2024

According to our extensive evaluation, Retail Merchant Services provides the cheapest way to take card payments, charging transaction fees as low as 0.4%, and a negotiable account fee.

With card payments accounting for 90% of retail spending, it’s no surprise that UK merchants collectively spend a whopping £1.3 billion accepting them. After all, transaction fees, account fees, and card machine rental costs can add up. To help you save as much as you can, we’ve analysed 11 top merchant service providers to find out which are cheapest:

If you’re still unsure which provider to pick, don’t worry: in this article, we cover the pricing, pros, and cons of the five cheapest contenders, so you can find out which of our top credit card machine providers fits your budget best.

Want to get totally accurate prices as quickly as possible? Tell us about your business to be matched with suitable providers who’ll share no-obligation, tailored quotes. Get started by answering the question below:

The cheapest merchant services for taking card payments

These are our top picks for merchant service providers that come with cheap charges, from free subscriptions to cheap card machines to competitive transaction fees.

1. Retail Merchant Services – Best for custom pricing

Retail Merchant Services is a payment solution company that’s big on features and small on price. Its value for money shines through the overall score of 4.7/5 our expert researchers awarded it after their testing.

It packs six reporting tools (including real-time data insights and wastage monitoring), and accepts 100 currencies, which sees the provider score 4.1/5 for features. This favours small business owners who can use the data from the provider to plan a growth strategy.

While international entrepreneurs may also benefit from this, it’s worth noting takepayments has a better multi-currency support (it accepts 170 currencies). takepayments also comes with more reporting tools than Retail Merchant Services (eight), so as far as we’re concerned, it’s second to none when it comes to features.

Furthermore, Retail Merchant Services is the only contract merchant account we researched that isn’t Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, which means the provider doesn’t take industry-standard procedures to keep data safe. It also means that, for the security of your business, you’ll have to undertake these procedures by yourself. Also, because it only offers support over the phone, it scores a low 2.6/5 for customer support.

How cheap is Retail Merchant Services?

Retail Merchant Services provides the cheapest way to take card payments, according to our extensive testing. That’s due to its low transaction fees: 0.4% for debit cards, 0.8% for credit cards, and 0.79% + 10p for online payments.

Its account fee, which starts at a low £10 + VAT per month, can be negotiated. This means your business has a prime chance to strike a deal that doesn’t break your bank and reduces your overall cost.

This led to the provider topping the price category in our research with a perfect score of 5/5, beating Tyl’s 4.8/5 and Revolut’s 4.6/5. These providers charge a minimum transaction fee of 1.5% and 0.8% + 2p, respectively, but it’s worth noting that they don’t charge account fees, which is great if you’re keen on avoiding a fixed cost to take payments.

However, because Retail Merchant Services underperforms in compliance and customer support (it scored a low 2.6/5 for the latter, for example), this prevents it from being deemed as the best provider overall.

2. Tyl – Best for affordable hardware

Tyl is an economical card reader provider. It offers four readers, the cheapest of which can be rented for just £9.99 + VAT per month. This affordability, along with the great customer support that our researchers found while testing Tyl, led to an overall score of 4.4/5 in our analysis.

By running customer support via phone and live chat every day (albeit not 24/7), it gets an impressive 4.7/5 in this category. Worldpay beats Tyl on this front by offering 24/7 phone support though. Square, while also not offering 24/7 service, includes an email channel that Tyl lacks. For us, both these providers have perfect customer support and are better suited for businesses that are open around the clock than Tyl.

Tyl offers an invoicing tool, but it falls short on integrations (only four providers connect with it). It also only comes with two reporting tools and doesn’t support multiple currencies. In comparison, takepayments comes with eight reporting tools and supports 170 currencies.

How cheap is Tyl?

Like its mobile merchant account competitors, Tyl doesn’t charge an account fee and its transaction fee occupies a solid middle ground in the market. At 1.50%, it’s higher than Revolut’s 0.8% + 2p, but lower than Zettle’s 1.75%.

This was reflected in our merchant account analysis, where Tyl is the runner-up for price. That said, due to its fixed hardware fee (which starts at £9.99 + VAT per month), we think Tyl is best suited to medium-sized to large businesses.

However, Tyl’s features offering is subpar. It only offers four integrations against Revolut’s 16 and Zettle’s 21. It also lacks the multi-currency support that both Revolut and Zettle offer.

This makes Tyl a no-no for international business owners. Furthermore, because its integrations are all accounting-related, it’s not the best provider for ecommerce businesses.

Pricing was updated in December 2023 to reflect an increase in the monthly price of the cheapest card reader – £6.99 to £9.99. 

3. Revolut – Best for simple PCI compliance

Revolut is a merchant account that also offers banking, stock trading, and card reader services. Its variety of solid payment taking services impressed our experts and won Revolut a high score of 4.8/5 upon our testing.

All of Revolut’s applications are PCI-compliant, which simplifies your compliance procedure. Revolut also integrates with 16 third-party providers and accepts 30 currencies.

However, if you’re a small business owner looking for data insights to grow, takepayments and Retail Merchant Services would be better suited to you. The former packs eight reporting tools, while the latter packs six – meanwhile, Revolut has only two.

Revolut offers customer support via phone and email, but lacks a live chat channel (like Tyl). This hiccup prevented it from getting a perfect score from us in this category. If you’re looking for hands-on support, Worldpay is your best choice as it offers 24/7 phone support.

How cheap is Revolut?

As merchant accounts go, Revolut packs a punch – and its brass knuckles are definitely its low transaction fees.

Its transaction fees – 0.8% + 2p for in-person payments and 1% + 20p for online ones – are among the cheapest we encountered in our analysis. In comparison, Tyl’s transaction fee is 1.5% and Zettle’s starts at 1.75%.

Revolut’s compliance procedure is remarkably straightforward – a major plus for business owners who lack the time or resources to fill out extensive forms. It’s better than the long questionnaire required by takepayments, or Retail Merchant Services’ complete lack of compliance.

However, Revolut’s sole two reporting tools don’t make it the best fit for businesses that need data insights to grow. This offer is the same as Tyl’s but way less than Zettle’s (five) and takepayments’ (eight).

4. Zettle – Best for help and support

Zettle is a payment taking platform that doubles as an EPOS system, like Square. Combining super low cost, a good amount of features and impeccable customer support, Zettle excelled in our testing and because of that, it tops our merchant account research, receiving a superb 4.8/5 from our payment experts.

Zettle’s lucky charm is its customer support. While it’s only available during weekdays, customers have the option to contact Zettle via phone, email, or live chat. This puts it in a better position than Revolut and Tyl, both of which lack an email support channel.

Elsewhere, Zettle integrates with 21 third-party platforms, includes five reporting tools, and accepts 25 currencies. Square, which offers a similar service, packs five reporting tools as well, but its integrations are countless. However, Square only supports the GBP. Both are solid fits for small businesses, but Zettle serves international ventures better.

How cheap is Zettle?

Zettle takes fourth place on this list due to its starting transaction fee (1.75%), which is higher than takepayments’ (0.3%) and Retail Merchant Services’ (0.4%). That said, it doesn’t have any account fees, which the other two providers do.

Also, it has one of the cheapest hardware we looked into: Zettle’s entry reader costs £29 + VAT, cheaper than Revolut’s, which costs £49 + VAT. However, its high transaction fees dented Zettle’s performance in the price category of our research, where our experts awarded it a 4.1/5 score.

Despite its pricing hiccups, Zettle’s reporting tools and integrations – which earnt the provider an excellent 4.9/5 score in our analysis of its features – make it a great card machine for small businesses, as they’ll benefit from both its lack of fixed fees and its data tools.

However, Zettle’s poor offering of readers with mobile data don’t make it suitable for mobile businesses, like food trucks. Unless you go for Zettle’s costliest reader (priced at £149 + VAT), you’ll be dependent on an external internet source to operate.

5. takepayments – Best for bespoke transaction fees

takepayments scores an impressive 4.8/5 score in our research. Upon testing, our experts found that its various reporting tools and solid customer score were among its biggest draws.

takepayments ends up on the fifth spot on this list due to its starting monthly account fee. At £20 + VAT, it’s costlier than Worldpay’s (£9.95 + VAT), Retail Merchant Services’ (£10 + VAT) and Barclaycard’s (£15 + VAT), though it’s cheaper than Dojo’s (£24.95 + VAT). Read our Dojo review for more informatino.

Beyond that, its mandatory contract length of 18 months is among the longest we’ve seen in our merchant account research. However, like Retail Merchant Services, takepayments allows for custom pricing so you can negotiate your fees.

takepayments’ best for medium-sized businesses that can fully use (and make the most out of) its accounting detailing and product customisation. Also, international businesses will appreciate its multi-currency support: it accepts 170, which is 50 more than Worldpay and 70 more than Retail Merchant Services. Because of those, we can’t think of any room for improvement in takepayments’ features.

While it’s not quite as fast as Worldpay’s 30min (!), takespayments settles payments the next business day. This makes it faster than Zettle (up to 2 working days) in this regard.

How cheap is takepayments?

takepayments’ has cheap rates in spades. Its starting transaction fee is bespoke and will be tailored to your business size / turnover. However, its account fee, though negotiable, starts at £20 + VAT, which makes it pricier than Retail Merchant Services’ (£10 + VAT).

This dents takepayments’ performance in the price category, where it ties with Zettle by scoring 4.1/5, though ultimately it loses out to this competitor on this list due to its account fee, which is something Zettle doesn’t charge.

It’s worth noting that another strength of takepayments is its eight reporting tools and support of 170 currencies. With those, while it doesn’t beat Zettle in price, it easily trumps its five reporting tools and support of 25 currencies. This, combined with its 16 third-party integrations, led to an outstanding 5/5 score in features.

The wide multi-currency support makes it a great provider for companies that are keen on growing internationally. However, for companies that need more hands-on support, its lack of an email support contact (like the one Zettle offers) is a clear disadvantage. This is because this extra support channel is helpful for business owners who want to reach out with a query but don’t have time to sit on the phone or a live chat channel.

Fees to watch out for when taking payments

You should watch out for different merchant account fees – such as transaction fees, conversion rates, and termination fees – when choosing a provider.

All the providers featured in the article charge different fees for in-person and online payments, except Tyl, which charges 1.6% for both. You should bear your business’ profile in mind when considering their difference.

If your business operates internationally, it’s a good idea to read the fine print of the providers’ conversion rates. While all of the merchant account companies featured here accept multi-currencies (apart from Tyl), they might charge you extra fees depending on the currency you’re paid in.

Also, picking a traditional provider instead of a mobile can be money-saving when it comes to transaction fees, but they do operate via fixed-term contracts that come with termination fees. Retail Merchant Services and takepayments, for example, require you to pay out your existing contract to get out of it – which isn’t ideal if you’re starting a high-risk venture.